I agree with the title of this thread. We have looked horrible against two of the worst teams in the conference. Our players stand around and wait for DJ to do something. They do get a few offensive boards, but one against five will not beat the better teams in conference.
The problem that I see is that noone else demands the ball. AJ and James need to come get the ball sometimes. Noone else will do it, so those guys need to. Not a knock on DJ at all, he needs someone else to help shoulder the load. I remember PJ Tucker used to demand the ball all of the time. He would bring the ball down and set the offense constantly. Damion used to do that more. I like when he brings the ball up because it turns the offense upside down and opens the middle to cuts. The best move Barnes made last night was having Mason set the offense. DJ had his easiest buckets of the night off of that set. DJ's not the problem...a lack of other confident scorers is.
Aside from Conner Atchley early on, I didn't see a lot of other options that DJ overlooked. He was the best option to score. There should be more options, but when they were open they missed far too often.
DJ is obviously a great player, but I agree 100% with the original post. We especially miss Atchley way, way too often when he is wide open. Barnes can talk about Connor not being confident/aggressive enough with the ball all he wants, but the reason he stopped scoring as much is because he hardly ever touches the ball. As someone already mentioned, we only attempted to get him the ball once out of the several times he was posting 5'11 Eaton. Sadly, that isn't too surprising given that Pittman and Gary Johnson are the only big guys DJ will give the ball to in the post with any regularity. Connor, Wangmene, Chapman, and even James better hope that Mason or JD Lewis is in the game if they want the ball on the block. Heck, even AJ dishes on drives and makes entry passes more often than DJ now. There were also two straight possessions in the 2nd half where Connor set the pick up top, rolled to the basket, and was wide open on the block after his man tried to trap DJ. DJ didn't even look at him either time. If we are going to run the pick and roll/pop as our base offense, it might be a good idea to actually pass the ball to the guy rolling to the basket when he is wide open for a dunk instead of calling him back up top to set another pick, and then another one, and another... Last thing - the entire team had only 5 assists last night. That's reaching a new low, but we have been under 10 pretty frequently since the Michigan State game. That's completely unacceptable.
I wholeheartedly agree with Matt. It seems like Connor or Damion sets a weak screen then rolls to the basket, then DJ goes up for a tough shot when he could zing it in for a layup or dunk. Of course, when you are as good as DJ, you can finish on those tough leaners. I just want him to commit to passing a bit more. Maybe kind of like Kobe has been doing this year; pass to get the team going, and when the game is on the line, take over.
What LonghornMatt said. Pick and roll isn't worth a **** unless (1) somebody rolls to the bucket and (2) you get the ball to the one rolling to the bucket. Then it's up to Atchley or whomever to go hard to the rack - especially over an Eaton or the like. We just don't do that, for whatever reason.
Thank you Matt for adding some credibility to what I've been saying. Even though I favor a motion offense over our sets and constant pick'n roll, I have to admit our sets actually work. Our post players also come open when they screen down low, but our guards never look their way. It's got to be frustrating for our bigmen to constantly flash wide-***-open and not even receive a look their way much less the actual ball.
When I read Longhornmatt's comment about the pick and roll sans pass, I said "amen". That drives me crazy!
Unless we develop a decent inside game, this team is going to have a short dance in March. No offense to DJ but the best player for Texas on both ends of the court is Damion James. He needs to touch the ball a lot more on offense. I would give Chapman more PT as well...the guy can play not sure why he isnt getting the time. We have 2 guards who have a shoot first mentality and it is hurting this team's development.
